Resource (Atlas)

The subject of this article is from the Atlas Rises update.
The information from this article is up-to-date as of 23 July, 2018.

This article is about the Atlas Rises version of Resource. For the NEXT version, see Resource.

Resources are the primary materials for multi-tool, starship, exosuit and exocraft upgrades, as well as base building.

Summary

Resources in No Man's Sky are organized in a periodic table custom made for the game. When resources are mined, they are broken down into their chemical elements, and these can be combined into new products, resources, etc. and sold on the open market.

Technology is dependent on certain elements, so collecting element resources and alloys can unlock new multi-tools, starships, etc.

Resources can be obtained in a wide variety of ways. They can be purchased, mined from raw elements on the ground of planets (either by hand or with an AMU), mined from asteroids in space, harvested from plants, given to you as gifts from animals you befriend, found in crates and containers on planet surfaces, and harvested by killing plants or animals or mining mineral formations. The abundance of elements varies significantly from one planet to another, and some resources are easiest to obtain in specific ways.

Scanning

Scanner and HUD icons

Scanner "diamonds"

When the scanner is used on a planet, diamonds of red, yellow, blue, green, and purple are displayed after the scan. These colors represent the location of elements belonging to the element groups indicated below. Resources of common rarity will not have the diamond markers. All mineable nodes (chunks of minerals in rock form) will have grids outlining the parts that will give resources when mined. Nodes that do not have grids DO NOT give resources when mined.

Scanning rock formations, crystals and flora with the Analysis Visor can reveal secondary resources, which can then be mined on all other instances of that scanned object.

Elements

There are five groups of elements: Oxides, Isotopes, Silicates, Neutrals, and Exotic elements. There are also four elements that are members of the Neutral/Exotic elements family that show characteristics of both the Neutral and Exotic groups.

Following the Atlas Rises update, harvesting elements from the terrain, plants, and animals can also supply a small chance to receive any of the elements below as a secondary resource (excluding items under the "Other Resources" lists below). The secondary elements are listed when scanning elements.

The following table contains:

• 19 elements present in the initial release
• 14 elements added as part of Update 1.10 (Foundation)
• 2 elements added as part of Update 1.20 (Pathfinder)

It does not contain alloys or other crafted products. (A list of alloys follows this table.)

Note that each individual resource page contains a list of items where the resource is an ingredient. As of the Atlas Rises update, the only resources that are NOT used in crafting are Pugneum, Tropheum, and Murrine.

Icon	Element	Abbrev	Group	Rarity	Base value  units	Released
	Iron	Fe	Oxide	Common	14.0	1.0
	Zinc	Zn	Oxide	Uncommon	41.0	1.0
	Titanium	Ti	Oxide	Rare	62.0	1.0
	Heridium	Hr	Silicate	Common	28.0	1.0
	Platinum	Pt	Silicate	Uncommon	55.0	1.0
	Chrysonite	Ch	Silicate	Rare	83.0	1.0
	Carbon	C	Isotope	Common	7.0	1.0
	Thamium9	Th	Isotope	Uncommon	21.0	1.0
	Plutonium	Pu	Isotope	Rare	41.0	1.0
	Nickel	Ni	Neutral	Common	138.0	1.0
	Copper	Cu	Neutral	Uncommon	110.0	1.0
	Iridium	Ir	Neutral	Uncommon	96.0	1.0
	Aluminium	Al	Neutral	Rare	165.0	1.0
	Coprite	Cr	Neutral	Rare	30.0	1.1
	Frost Crystal	Fc	Neutral	Rare	12.0	1.1
	Emeril	Em	Neutral	Rare	275.0	1.0
	Solanium	So	Neutral	Rare	70.0	1.1
	Gold	Au	Neutral	Rare	220.0	1.0
	Mordite	Mo	Neutral	Rare	40.0	1.1
	Pugneum	Pg	Neutral	Rare	138.0	1.1
	Cactus Flesh	Cc	Neutral	Rare	28.0	1.1
	Fungal Mould	Fm	Neutral	Rare	16.0	1.1
	Tropheum	Tr	Neutral	Rare	138.0	1.1
	Radnox	Ra	Precious/Exotic	Very Rare	303.0	1.0
	Marrow Bulb	Mb	Neutral/Exotic	Rare	41.0	1.1
	Armadium	Ar	Neutral/Exotic	Rare	27.5	1.2
	Detritum	De	Neutral/Exotic	Rare	27.5	1.2
	Gamma Root	Gr	Neutral/Exotic	Rare	16.0	1.1
	Rubeum	Ru	Exotic	Rare	289.0	1.1
	Kelp Sac	Ke	Exotic	Rare	41.0	1.1
	Viridium	Vi	Exotic	Rare	303.0	1.1
	Calium	Ca	Exotic	Very Rare	289.0	1.0
	Cymatygen	Cy	Exotic	Very Rare	275.0	1.1
	Murrine	Mu	Exotic	Very Rare	303.0	1.0
	Omegon	Om	Exotic	Very Rare	309.0	1.0

Compressed Atmospheric Gas

These can be collected with an Atmosphere Harvester or as a secondary element on certain plants after being scanned.

Icon	Element	Abbrev	Base value  units	Environment	Released
	Sulphurine	Su	?	Hot/Barren	1.3
	Radon	Rn	?	Radioactive/Frozen	1.3
	Nitrogen	N	?	Lush/Toxic	1.3

Resource Deposits

Resource Deposits are concentrated nodes of a certain element. There are always two resource deposit types of any kind plus Heridium on every planet (e.g. Copper and Aluminium).

• Heridium nodes are tall, thin, deep blue and cuboid shaped.
• Nickel nodes are similar to the Heridium nodes, except that they are wider, smaller and have a dark color.
• Aluminium nodes are wider, smaller than Heridium nodes, are also rounded (have a half-disk like shape) and have a metallic white color.
• Emeril nodes have a metallic green color and are shaped like a really rough half-sphere.
• Gold nodes have a metallic yellow color, and are similar in shape to Emeril.
• Copper nodes are usually shaped like eggs, are dark brown in color and float in the air.
• Iridium nodes are the rarest version of a node. They looks like a steep arc and can be easily confused with rocks in color.
• Rubeum nodes are only found in Red Star Systems.
• Viridium nodes are only found in Green Star Systems.
• Cymatygen nodes are only found in Blue Star Systems.

It is possible to find bigger nodes which contain more elements than usual. There's a chance that those nodes can be marked by scanning in space with a spaceship.

Crystals

Some elements can also be found in crystalline form. The color of the crystal indicates which element family is present.

• Red crystals contain Plutonium and may contain Thamium9 as a secondary element. Most common.
• Blue crystals are Chrysonite, may contain Heridium. Rare.
• Yellow crystals are composed of Titanium, and may contain Iron. Rare.
• Green Crystals can contain any Neutral element. Very rare.

Plants

Some elements can be found as compounds in certain plants on planet surfaces:

• Carbon (can also be found by killing animals)
• Zinc
• Platinum
• Thamium9
• Marrow Bulb (in caves)
• Cactus Flesh ( on desert worlds)
• Gamma Root (on radioactive worlds)
• Fungal Mould (on toxic worlds)
• Frost Crystal (on frozen worlds)
• Solanium (on hot worlds)
• Kelp Sac (underwater)

Additionally, these elements can be collected from fauna interactions, but can also be farmed:

• Mordite (from animals killed by weapons)
• Coprite (from feeding animals)

Pre-Release elements

The following elements and element abbreviations were used in the pre-release version of the game.

• Hyglese
• Ioxinite (Ix)
• Oxycen
• Raegon-214 (Rg)
• Silicon (Si)
• Sulfur (s)
• Ac
• Cb
• Ko
• Vy

Additional information

• During an interview with Sean Murray, he was asked how far down you can dig. Sean said "you can dig like 128 meters down into a planet." This sets a limit on how deep mining and exploration can take place.

• When art director Grant Duncan wanted the possibility of green skies over a planet, the development team at Hello Games had to redesign the periodic table to create atmospheric particles that would diffract light at just the right wavelength.

Sean Murray commented during a gameinformer interview, "We just wanted to be a bit freer. There's only something like seven different compounds or something like that that we create really good types of liquids that you could have creatures survive in. And we might want more than that for the game. We might want to decide our own rules and you just get tied up into too many conversations about it and things like that. Sometimes gameplay and science don't sync together. That's sort of a shame but I think for the best."

Gallery

• 

  Scanner and HUD icons
  (Foundation)

• 

  All the resources in NMS (Atlas Rises)

• 

  Giant flora allocations in the system of Ame on Ame Prime - Preteritor.jpg